An Economic and Financial Crimes Commission witness, Abdulkareem Mustapha, on Friday told a Federal High Court in Abuja that the nine million dollars he handed over to oil magnate, Aliyu Abubakar, was from the sale of the property to Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN).
Testifying, Mustapha, a prosecution witness narrated how he collected the money and handed it over to Abubakar, who is the second defendant in an ongoing money laundering case.
Abubakar and Mohammed Adoke, a former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice are standing trial on a 14-count charge bordering on money laundering.
The witness who was led in evidence by Mr Bala Sanga, the prosecuting counsel, said that he acted as an agent of Abubakar, who engaged in buying and selling of property.
He said he was invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) to give details of what he knew about the transaction about three times over a period of two years.
He added that the money was paid to the defendant at different times.
On Tuesday, the 4th prosecution witness, Farouk Suleiman, a Bureau de Change (BDC) operator, gave details of how he received N2 billion from Abubakar and converted part of it to dollars.
Suleiman told the court that he was introduced to Abubakar sometime in 2011, following which the second defendant approached him sometime in 2013 to help him convert N2 billion to dollars.
He told the court that the cheques were drawn in the name of a firm, Equal Access, which he lodged in Farsman Holding Limited’s account with Heritage Bank Plc.
